August 2011
4 posts
WatchHauerwas: Learning To Be Loved
You might be an evangelical if.... →
Confessions of a cage fighter →
It's like bread and circuses, sans the bread. →
July 2011
4 posts
"There is no reason an authentic prophet should be... →
On Doing--Not Just Hearing--the Word
Consider my mind blown after reading this—
“In the language of Zizek, we must traverse the fantasy of ‘the inerrant Bible’ and recognize the lack that is behind it, detach ourselves from it and work towards a reconfiguration of our belief and practice of Scripture. We surely want to uphold ‘a high view’ of Scripture as truth bearing, reliable, trustworthy, and dare I say infallible. But we need a...
On the use (and misuse) of words →
Huh???? →
June 2011
5 posts
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/june/cultu... →
The best part is when the author says contemporary worship is essentially classic Protestant liberalism. A bit of a sweeping statement that deserves to be fleshed out more, but one that strikes me as true.
Thirty of the harshest author-on-author insults.... →
NT Wright: The Whole Sweep of Scripture →
The good bishop suggests how to read the Bible.
May 2011
4 posts
I Guess They'll Know We Are Christians By Our... →
April 2011
10 posts
He Shouldn't Have Done It
Reflections on resurrection from the Misfit in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”:
“Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,” the Misfit continued, “and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do now but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but...
Christ Is Risen
When I dabbled in Eastern Orthodoxy a few years back, the highlight for me of the great Pascha (that’s Easter for you Western folks) service was, after the candles were lit, and the Divine Liturgy performed, was the reading of St John Chrysostom’s Catechetical Homily. What struck me about it was the participatory nature of it: the chanter reads it, and towards the end there is a call...
"Easter is God's Victory"
Among the things I lost when my car was stolen was theologian Alan Lewis’s masterful meditation on Holy Saturday called Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday. This excerpt that I posted last year on Facebook is all that remains. Enjoy on this, the Feast of the Resurrection.
—
This sudden, breathtaking reversal of the Good Friday verdict on Jesus’ conflict...
Seven Stanzas at Easter
Seven Stanzas at Easter John Updike
Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body. If the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers, each soft spring recurrent; it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles; it was as his flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and...
Slacktivist: Easter Saturday →
“The cross, therefore, is not a symbol to explain inexplicable suffering. We do...”
– Stanley Hauerwas, “A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching,” 65.
Hauerwas: Prisoners No More →
“The believer’s cross is no longer any and every kind of suffering, sickness, or...”
– John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster, 96.
Roger Olson: On Being Arminian →
Fantastic explanation and defense of Arminianism. If you have an hour tonight, I cannot recommend this podcast enough for your listening enjoyment and edification.
March 2011
14 posts
On Eating Chocolate For Lent →
“The first proclamation of the gospel is that death is God’s ancient enemy, whom...”
– Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart, in a Jan 2006 interview about God, suffering, and evil.
Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot
Ash Wednesday
Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign?
Because I do not hope to know again The infirm glory of the positive hour Because I do not...
“Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost...”
– Book of Common Prayer, collect for Ash Wednesday (via ayjay)
The Trustworthiness of Beards →
40 Ideas For Lent →
Great ideas for reflection/contemplation/action for the upcoming Lenten season.
It's Time to Play "Sheen, Beck, or Qaddafi" →
“But I’m convinced that maturing in one’s faith also entails...”
– Tomáš Halík, Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing In Us
Obama: Truly Niebuhrian?
“The current president came to national attention as a candidate enunciating principles of justice for the conduct of warfare, statecraft, the domestic economy and political change….As soon as he described himself to an interviewer as a Niebuhrian, we should have known that the principles were nothing more than mushy sentiments to be thrown overboard at the first sign of rough...
European Club Soccer as Feudalism: http://ping.fm/xv4n5
I’m sorry man, I got magic and I’ve got poetry in my fingertips, you know, most of the time, and this includes naps.
February 2011
19 posts
"Jesus' teachings are digging tools that undercut... →
The Pyramid of Greatness →
Portlandia: The Stereotypes Are True →
A Pacifist Ethic of Romantic Love →
A completely countercultural take on the...
“I suspect that we might best de-idolize romantic love by giving more attention to friendship in the context of koinonia, or churchly community. I have in mind Aristotle’s highest form of friendship–the friendship of those devoted to a common cause. Christians are those people caught up in an adventure nothing less than the destiny of the world. As such, we hardly need the comparatively puny...
How much easier would the romantical be if it was... →
It’s Singles’ Awareness Day. I’m gonna order myself flowers, eat a pint of Haagen Daz, and watch The Notebook.
On this Singles’ Awareness Day, wishing the State of Oregon a happy 152nd birthday. And even if he can’t see it (no interwebs), happy birthday Dad!
Top 20 Bad Theological Pickup Lines
I posted this a few years back on my MySpace blog. Posted on this site, then someone slightly modified it. Enjoy!
20. “I am not overweight. The word ‘glory’ in Hebrew is kabod which according to HALOT literally means ‘heaviness.’ The Bible also says that we are to reflect God’s glory. Therefore, I am just doing what the Bible says.” 19....